ZUPP'S FACEBOOK POSTS #2

Another batch from the past couple of months or so...


1/ Imagine if your household budget was shot to hell and you were in debt up to your ears and you said to your significant other: "You know, we need to spend more money on guns!" That would be pretty crazy, right? Welcome to Washington DC.

2/ Remain calm. All is well. Except... We are governed by greedy elites, poverty is rampant in the world, the planet is heating up like an oven, the food isn't safe to eat, the water is touch-and-go at best, democracy is dead, faux capitalism is alive and well, and nuclear energy/weapons are more than a moderate threat.

2a/ BUT: More people are informed and active than ever, the tide is turning our way, the marginalized majority still has their sense of humanity, we are prepared to help each other, and... we will win this thing!

3/ BILL HICKS: "Go back to bed, America. Your government is in control.... You are free to do as we tell you!"

4/ If it's really true that only the good die young, those bastards in Washington are going to live for bloody ever!

5/ Do you ever see the Congress turkeys on TV or in the news and have a medieval moment and just scream out: "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"?

6/ Won't it be wonderful when we change the world and have an egalitarian society based on fulfilling work for all? And the Wall Street hotshots who've skated across our lake of economic pain for so long are working shoulder-to-shoulder with us. They'll be bitching their brains out! With great satisfaction I'll lean over and say, "Well at least you have a job!"

7/ If the vast majority of people in this world had their way, there would be peace, food and shelter for all, care for the environment, abolition of all things nuclear, and an eradication of nationalism. These things can't wait too much longer. Time to topple the pyramid and bring the minority elites down.

8/ We have a system that works in favor of a very few people. It's faux capitalism. It's been punishing millions of people for a long time. It's only now that it's moved further upwards to nip at the rest of us that we're calling it a crisis. It's been a national and world-wide crisis for many many people for a long time. The answer? We need a restructuring of our society -- and the so-called "global economy" -- and it can be done. Anyone who says it's impossible should check out the odds on the alternative!

Take care,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might also like to take a look at ZUPP'S FACEBOOK POSTS #1

ZUPP'S FACEBOOK POSTS #1

As I mentioned last time, I'm using Zuckerberg's billion dollar baby for activist purposes -- like millions of other activists.

I decided some of my recent posts would make a decent blog. Snippet-truisms and observations.


1/ No offense meant to decent Americans, whom I love, but honestly, just how long has it been okay for politicians to feed us the line "This is the greatest country in the world" without anybody standing up and saying flat out: "Hey, that's really arrogant and, well, quite wrong, d***head!"?

2/ COMMON CONVERSATION IN D.C. THESE DAYS: "U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Amendments, Pledge of Allegiance, Patriot Act... Listen you guys, people are starting to wake up to the old crap. We need some NEW crap that we can twist around and confuse em with and get em saluting our bull***t."

3/ To those people who are too frightened or apathetic to speak up to power, how about doing it for the next generation? If we don't stand up to power, it might be the LAST generation.

4/ Final thought for the day: If you can't say something nice about someone, you're probably talking about a politician.

5/ I live in the States because I have a son here and there's much about it I love. I have a green card/permanent residency and have paid a truckload of taxes but I'm not allowed to vote. Should I stage a revolution over that? Wouldn't be the first time it happened.

6/ QUESTION: Why is it when the American government announces the occasional worthwhile reform, troop withdrawal, cessation of hostilities, repeal of an odious law etc, it will take effect in 30 days, 90 days, a year, two years...? I'm not saying outright that there might not, in certain instances, be a good reason for the delay, I'm just saying that we have a right to know what the hell that reason is. A lot of people can be slaughtered or starved in 30 days.

7/ "The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people."
- Noam Chomsky

8/ Did anyone see the story about the huge racial divide in wages/salaries in America reported this past week? Not to mention the still-present gender divide. Meanwhile, the WASPs on Wall Street, who are just robber barons, are still cleaning up like champs.

9/ Whenever we need leadership in America, our "leaders" seem to go missing. Meanwhile, crop circles continue to mysteriously appear. Coincidence or connection? You be the judge. :-) (You have to admit, it would be much more fitting to call Congress, "those crop circle dudes.")

10/ We must not allow the elites to set the language of public discourse. For example, we do not have "defense spending." We have military spending, war spending, invasion spending, OFFense spending.

11/ [On the recent debt debacle] The answer to this is simple and obvious and many people know it: Cut military spending and take health "care" out of the hands of corporatio­ns. Those two things alone would cure the debt.

12/ Washington finally signs off on a debt deal: "Screw the people!"   

13/ CHEVY CHASE'S IMPERSONATION OF AN AMERICAN POLITICIAN: "It takes a big man to admit when he's wrong, and I am NOT a big man!" 

14/The way "our" [the U.S.] government is going, they'll have to build border walls to keep us IN before long.

Take care,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at WE'RE WINNING!

WE'RE WINNING!

Late Comedy Genius and Social Change Advocate Bill Hicks: "You're right!"

Holy s***! I'm a revisionist!

Well, not exactly. I've just decided that I'm going to use the dreaded Facebook to my advantage (like a judo dude using his opponent's momentum to win a contest). And what I've found is a massive activist/radical community there, co-opting the FB playground for worthwhile purposes. You know, other than reporting what they had for lunch or why they're so physically fabulous etc.

The experience has further confirmed my belief that the tide is very much turning in favor of serious social change. Sure, like the tides themselves, at times it's hard to see it happening, but it really is. I'm convinced that we are now the majority. People are fed up and want to wash away the current, corrupt systems and institutions.

When I make new activist "friends" on FB and engage them, I often get very enthusiastic, positive responses, exemplified by one guy who said simply, "We'll win this thing!" Indeed.

The fearful, apathetic, conservative and self-interested are now the minority! Believe it. What needs to happen next is a metamorphosis towards cohesion which will lead us to the critical mass, the tipping point, the moment when the people will regain their democracy and start setting the agenda, big time.

What's the evidence? Check out the movements out there: Wikileaks, Anonymous, Zeitgeist, non-profits, pacifist far-left groups, websites... it goes on and on. Millions of people. All over the world. And it's all based on friendship and camaraderie. And these folks are riled up and rockin!

Sure, there are differences between the groups and between individuals. But that's to be expected. The things that unite us, the major things, far outweigh those differences.

So don't fret if the mass media doesn't report this movement: they don't say much about climate change either but we know it's happening. The elites may own the mass media and the other failing institutions, but we have the numbers, and our own growing alternative institutions.

Feel energized! Stay positive!

And my message to the fearful, the apathetic, the cynical: We are optimistic, and we DO care about you, and we DO have a sense of humor, and we will include you.

My message to all my fellow world shakers -- especially if you ever start to feel overwhelmed -- is to remember the words of the comedian Bill Hicks: "You're right. Not those f***ers who want to tell you how to think. YOU'RE RIGHT!"

And we'll win this thing!


Take care,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at WHY I WRITE THIS BLOG.

THE WIT & WISDOM OF LEWIS BLACK

I love Lewis Black.

Hell, I love any comedian with the cojones to attack the "Establishment" and still be funny.

Lenny Bruce blazed the way (although Lenny was so wounded he got to the point where he simply stopped being funny). Bill Hicks picked up the torch and was marginalized too. Richard Pryor spoke out for African-Americans and managed to win a wider audience. Others have done it. Not nearly enough of them though. Because they know that going after powerful people can be a career risk. Gutless. (And so we're stuck with David Letterman.)

Lewis is a clever man. He's found a way to be savage and lovable at the same time. To push the envelope but still swim in the mainstream. Of course he also benefits from somewhat more liberal times -- thanks, in large part, to people like Lenny and Bill and Richard.

Being a regular on John Stewart's "Daily Show" on Comedy Central certainly gave Lewis some ballast. And he's gone from strength to strength. Dogging everyone from Dick Cheney to Obama to Dr. Phil to the nipple-flashing Janet Jackson. His shtick is that he's everyone's angry man. Constantly lashing out before announcing that he really needs a nap. Recommending that we all run head-first into our TV screens but, on a more serious note, telling us to not believe a damn thing that anyone in Washington tells us.

Washington. Ah yes, how Lewis loves the American political system.

Here are a few gems from the man himself:

-- "Why would anyone identify with either party in this country? Our two-party system is basically a bowl of s**t looking at itself in the mirror."

-- "I do have certain feelings. My feeling is that whoever is in charge, I want him out."

-- "The most important part of travel, is when you come home. Because, that's when you see your country with new eyes. I was amazed to realize that we're...we're the only country that...that tells the rest of the world, on a nearly constant basis, that we're the greatest country on Earth. And that is a little f***in' obnoxious! And they know it's obnoxious. Because, if you were in an office, and there was someone there, who came in every day and said: 'I'm the greatest f***er here! And you sniveling s***ts would die without me! AHAHAHAHA!' I can guarantee that by the end of the week, you'd have killed him! And eaten him, just to try to possess his power!"

Long may you rant, Lewis.

Take care,
Adrian Zupp
IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE FABULOUS BILL HICKS.

JOHN LENNON -- IMAGINE

I was never a big fan of the Beatles -- which is almost blasphemy to many folks, I know.

I mean, I can actually remember them right back when they wore matching suits. I guess I had a bit of a Beatles phase, but I was more of a Stones man.

So I never totally got into the music of John Lennon either. Which is not the same as saying I couldn't appreciate it. He was a marvelously talented individual.

And he had a kind heart.

As you may know, we just passed what would have been his 70th birthday (October 9), and, sadly, are approaching the 30th anniversary of his death at the hands of a madman (December 8). For some reason, I felt compelled to write about him today.

From what I know of Lennon, he wasn't an angel and didn't try to be: He was a rebel in his own right and he was more fallible than the deification since his death would have you believe. But he struck me as the kind of guy who would be the first to admit that. He wasn't too wrapped up in himself.

John Lennon sang about love, peace and imagining a better world. He didn't need costumes, a computer beat and gossip mags to make his fame. He had something better: That heart of his. And it was, make no mistake, a rock and roll heart.

True artists, the great ones -- singers, writers, poets, painters -- do not calculate their next success like the lesser lights who fuel "the idiot culture." The real creative geniuses deliver directly from the soul to the page (or the microphone etc.). They disgorge. That is what defines them: You get truth, not artifice.

It's like the difference between, say, Aretha Franklin or Janis Joplin and the pitch-perfect but almost indistinguishable singers on "American Idol."

Bill Hicks, the great social-commentary comedian whom I love to quote, used to scream out during his rant about rock and roll: "PLAY FROM YOUR F****N' HEART!"

John Lennon played from his heart. And he hoped that it would impact people in a positive way. Unquestionably it did and still does.

So, as we remember these anniversaries of his birth and passing, let's leave the last word to John -- with these excerpted lyrics from "Imagine" -- and see if they might seep deeply into us:

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one "

Peace,
Adrian Zupp

BREAKING NEWS: I just read this news story a couple of hours after writing this blog post:
"Three decades after his death, Beatles singer John Lennon's legacy continues to live with a commemorative British coin honouring him going on sale in the UK, weeks after what would have been the legend's 70th birthday. The Imagine hit-maker was announced winner of an online vote to determine which
British luminary would be honoured with a commemorative coin struck by the Royal Mint.

Lennon’s coin, which depicts him with long hair and sideburns and his trademark round glasses, will have a face value of $8 but will be sold for $71.63.

Only 5,000 coins will be sold."

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE FABULOUS BILL HICKS! or VALE HOWARD ZINN.

SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY

A Wonderful Mentor -- Lex Mitchell (left) back in his acting days.

The title of this blog entry isn't a reference to U2 or the Bogside Massacre in Northern Island in 1972 (which the song is about).

Apart from the fact that it is Sunday in my part of the world, the title is rather random.

Which is what this blog will be. (But not without substance.)

I'm a little blocked up creatively. I have several blog entries in the works and usually do. But the right juices aren't flowing. So forgive me the indulgence of this stream-of-consciousness entry. It might unclog the works. Some salts for the creative brain.

So, it's Sunday. People are in church, hospital, the grave, the funhouse, casinos, Chinese factories, Latin American sweatshops, NFL comas, beds, shitty prisons, jet airliners, movie houses, recording studios, stupors, cooking classes, dirty kitchens, fantasy worlds, savage realities... should I go on?

I'm always amazed at what's happening in the world at any given moment. This moment. The scope and variety and pure living theater of it. Somewhere a child is being bargained for while someone else gets married or gnashes their way towards divorce while someone else puts a gun to their head while someone else digs for a fossil that might answer a question about our race while someone else slips a pack of teeth whiteners in their coat at the local supermarket while someone else looks at an old photo and remembers something. Billions of events, tiny and large, in every corner of the globe.

The human race is a fascinating mass-multitude of stories being written simultaneously. How incredible is that?

It's the highest of high art that can never be simulated by the greatest writer or painter or, God help us, computer genius.

Which makes it kind of a sin to sit in your living room on a Sunday. Or too much on any day, for that matter. Much better to wander the streets and look for the interesting secrets we generally whiz by in our cars. There's poetry out there.

I once had a mate who used to say "I'm gonna suck the juice out of life." He was a wild one who shared Billy the Kid's surname.

He went to the farewell get-together for our college business class dressed in a bloodied butcher's apron. Why not? It was a lark. Our business school -- inaugural as it was -- existed in part of a monastery set in the countryside just southwest of Sydney.

You can't ask for a better beginning in higher education than that. It was 1983-4. I loved every moment. Good friends. Interesting classes. (I'd been a high school time-waster so the only way I got into college was through the "mature entry" program. Fate played the straight man, as it often does.)

We played touch footy in every break and flirted with the girls constantly. I was a few years older so I flirted with the receptionist as well. ("Hold some of my calls!") We were surrounded by trees and pastures and the wafting meditations of the monks. Times were good.

Every Friday, when classes were over, I'd get on the F5 (have I got my freeways right? It's so long ago), and I'd usually put on Foreigner's second album "Double Vision" (cassette tapes in those days) and roar up the highway to my home in the western suburbs before hitting the disco in Parramatta with my best mate, Bazza. AKA The Dead Man. I recall that the surging, evocative instrumental "Tramontine" would always be playing when I passed this strange-looking structure perched out in the middle of nowhere. Some kind of mystery facility with mad professors undoubtedly feverishly at work.

Every time that happened it was an exultant, transcendent moment -- I felt invincible. The kind of moment that makes you realize your own life is a fascinating story. The kind of moment that you live for.

Yes, these were wonderful days. Sucking the juice out of life.

I had a professor at that college whom I'll never forget and will take the liberty of naming here.

His name was Lex Mitchell. He'd been a movie and TV actor of some standing in the 70s but was now, strange as it seemed, an accounting lecturer. (Actually this fitted Lex's philosophy on life perfectly. He'd tell us: "Don't get too caught up in one thing. Life is a smorgasbord. Taste everything. See what you like." Never a truer word spoken.)

Lex taught accounting the way Jack Kerouac might have taught writing or Charlie Parker might have taught jazz: throw out all the rules. I don't think we learned what the hell a balance sheet was until about Week 7. We were frantic and dismayed. We needed this important, factual, concrete shit so we could earn dollars later on in jobs that would kill our brains and give us cookie-cutter homes and picture book families.

We thought Lex was lazy. A nut. A show pony. Lacking in knowledge. Avoiding his duties. What was all this nonsense on the first day of the class?: "This will be an anthropological study of what it is accountants do." (Of course the message down the line was that they can bend financial "reality" in any fashion they like, which has huge implications for anything financial, including how the world is run.)

No, Lex wasn't a nut or a slacker. He had better plans for us. He valued our potential. And he wasn't about to lead us all the way to the water and show us how to drink. He was going to unsettle us, confuse us, even panic us. He would give us deeper lessons before the dumb nuts and bolts of "debits on the left and credits on the right." Lex was going to make us... think.

He became a friend. He was 46 and I was in my 20s. Sometimes he drove me nuts. But I loved the bloke.

I remember once in his office we were talking about all kinds of shit. I mentioned Montgomery Clift, the great film actor who'd died in 1966.

"How the hell do you know about Monty?" Lex asked, a little incredulous.

"I read his bio and watched his movies. Genius."

"I met him once back when I was acting," Lex said with a smile. "They pass this way but once."

Indeed.

I remember many things Lex taught me/us. Another time in his office we had another exchange.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"24."

He smiled. "24. It's all ahead of you. I'm 46. If I knew at your age what I know now I'd be running the show."

I never forgot that.

The thing is, you don't get to know at 24 what it takes 46 years to experience. We don't get that luxury. We only get to make our way as best we can, learn as we go, blunder as we must, and that is life. I felt a little sad because I think Lex, as rich as his life had been, had a reservoir of regret: which is the most useless, baseless emotion of them all. (I'll get into that another time.) His personal balance sheet, his profit and loss statement, was that he had a great mind and a fine heart and he had experienced and shared so much.

Lex also taught us some very powerful lessons in logic for dealing with the bullshit of the world. And I have kept them in my toolbox to this day.

He taught us to be wary of assertions. How often in lectures, arguments, testimonies, conversations, bull sessions, famous speeches that take us to war, ideas that lead to crimes, lectures that lead to bad learning, do we hear statements like: "The only way is to do XYZ." Or "Nobody will listen to you!" Or "This is a money maker." Pick any assertion you like.

[Dictionary definition of "assertion": a positive statement or declaration, often without support or reason]

Lex taught us that this is how people are often persuaded and morons get their way, but that assertions are baseless, often emotive, statements. They're bullshit.

His antidote? Always ask two questions: 1/ What do you mean? 2/ What is your evidence? He insisted that if you ask the question "What do you mean?" until your tongue bleeds, most arguments, and their purveyors, fall apart. As for evidence, most assertions are not backed by any. Try it. As Bill Hicks used to say: "It's logic. It'll help ya."

And then the world leaders with the bombs and the teachers teaching your kids and the lawyers trying to grind you into the dust for the love of money and the lover who is getting too emotional and the car salesman who wants to vacuum your bank account or the propagandist who would have us conforming and consuming like robots, will all actually have to come up with little things called facts. Better than 90% of the time, you'll find that that's game over.

I lost touch with Lex a bit before I moved to the States 15 years ago. I've tried tracking him down but can't find him. That keeps happening to me. I also lost touch with the Dead Man, who was almost like a brother to me, around the same time. He was the only person the high school reunion committee couldn't track down. Like D-Day in "Animal House." He could be living on a mountain in New Zealand or buried somewhere in an unmarked grave. Who knows? His disappearance is entirely fitting and very sad.

Lex would be about 73 now if he quit the smokes and made it this far. I hope he has. Men like him are few and far between. They have ideas that mean something and they're happy to share them with those smart enough to shut up and stop talking for a while and actually listen and learn.

It was a long time ago and I'm lucky to have had those experiences. I've had some great teachers. I sit here now in my living room in Las Vegas writing this, reflecting, appreciating the life I've had. But there is much yet to do!

Now I'll get off my own butt and go poke around the nooks and crannies this Vegas Sunday. Practice what I preach.

Well, this flowed pretty well, eh? A bit of a tale or two. Is there an overarching lesson? Perhaps it's simply that life can be supremely interesting. Intriguing. Painful. Depressing. Dangerous. Fun. Mysterious. And much more. We love, we lose love. We fight our battles and we win some, we lose some. That's the best anyone can manage. Rich or poor. Smart or dumb. Life is way too big to master so forget that nonsense.

Well, I thank you for reading.

Now go forth this holy Sunday and suck the juice out of life. Believe me, you have nothing better to do.

Take care and may God bless all the people who've disappeared from our lives,
Adrian Zupp
FOOTNOTE: This blog entry is dedicated to Jazmyn who was also a very special part of my life. And to Lex and the Dead Man, of course. [IF YOU LIKED this post, you might also like LIFE'S SHORT...MAKE IT COUNT.]

LIFE'S SHORT... MAKE IT COUNT

I just saw the aftermath of what had to have been a fatal accident.

I was out for an evening walk and at a nearby intersection a motorcycle had speared into the side of a van. It was still wedged in there somehow, upright but unmanned. The cops were still on the scene but the ambulances had been and gone.

It was just one more reminder of how brief and unpredictable life is. Who knows what'll happen next or how any of us will end up? This much I do know: You have to make it count.

I believe in what Bill Hicks used to say: "It's just a ride." We shouldn't take ourselves or the daily minutiae or our pursuit of goodies too seriously. We're not on the planet for long enough for any of that stuff to matter. And last I heard it was eternity that went on for quite a while.

But like Hicks I also believe that we should care about each other while we're here. Having a good time and not "sweating the small stuff" doesn't mean we shouldn't occasionally sweat some of the big stuff. That's why I write this blog.

There are a lot of people in the world who don't even get to enjoy the ride. They need our help. They're poor or ill or oppressed or locked up without reason. They lack some of the fundamental things that you and I have. Sure, we have our own pretty decent problems too from time to time. Granted. But you know what I'm saying.

So live well but don't live selfishly. Besides, the more you give, the more you get.

And you'll certainly enjoy the ride for however long you're on it.

[Watch this clip. It's under 2 minutes long and will be the best 2 minutes you spend today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZkhR8suCF4]

Take very good care, especially when you're behind the wheel,
Adrian Zupp
PS: On another note, this month has seen me set my own personal record for blogging. I'm kinda proud of that. My own little ride. [IF YOU LIKED THIS POST, you might also like A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE FABULOUS BILL HICKS!]

REMEMBERING SIMPLER TIMES

I don't have television, but I like to do a little "time traveling" on YouTube. (All things in moderation.)

Sometimes I'll sit for an hour and look up clips of bands from the 70s, including those I grew up with in Australia. Or old rugby league games. Or the great comedians of my lifetime. It always leaves me feeling good, if not a little wistful.

I'm not one to say that the good old days were always so good. But what I do miss is the simplicity that's lacking in today's world. Everything now is so fast, flashy, extreme-high-tech, replaceable, impersonal. Life has never been easier, nor harder.

I need to use computers and cell phones to some extent but I wouldn't be heartbroken if they all disappeared tomorrow. I preferred typing my work onto paper and having the luxury of being unreachable.

I miss the old ways. And my deceased heroes: Marc Bolan, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks, Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac, George Best... it's a long list. They had character, creativity. There are still such people today but they are not as valued. The trash floats to the top: it's cheaper to churn out, after all.

I miss substance. Ball games over video games. Talking over texting. Great rock bands over phony computer-programmed pop. I liked holding an album cover in my hands (I refuse to get an iPod). And now with these damn Kindle things they're trying to do the same thing with books. Books! Look, let's just get those data chips implanted in our brains now and get the whole rancid process of reductionism over with.

What of art? What of interpersonal interaction? What of doing things in "real time"?

Even TV, which has become the monster mindf*** of our age, used to have some innocence. It used to be, well, fun.

Not only has virtually everything in life become a commodity, we have become a commodity. We are not so much individual human beings anymore. We're mass audiences being sold to advertisers. We're demographics for the latest idiot TV vomit. We're test groups for the new hot product that nobody really actually needs. We're lemmings lining up to buy the same stuff everyone else is buying so we won't feel left out or "different." Sure, we still pay lip service to individualism but very few have the courage to live it.

I remember childhood summers of cricket in the nearby cul-de-sac, riding my bike all over creation, and "hunting" lizards. I remember mighty football fantasies in the backyard where I was the hero of the big game. Teenagers walking around with transistor radios held up near their ear. Riding the old "red rattler" trains into the heart of Sydney to see the latest movie starring Burt Reynolds or Clint Eastwood or Paul Newman. Or taking the train just a few suburbs over to the pool hall to shoot a few games.

There were no marathon cyber escapes or hours of video games. No "reality" TV obsessions or endless "celebrity" scandals filling the news shows and magazine racks.

There was just the world, and my mates and I couldn't wait to be out in it every day. It wasn't a world of air-conditioned everything and disposable this and that. It was a precious, flesh and blood thing.

So what's the moral here? Well, I truly believe that, despite what the technology gurus and corporate ratbags would tell us, we've lost more than we've gained. And that is especially sad for our kids -- which means we have to work harder to bring real substance and humanity to their daily lives.

The Who once sang "I hope I die before I get old." Well, I value life, but I hope I die before this whole anti-culture, mass acceleration thing goes much further. I have seen better days and they live in my memory.

Here are some clips I love that you might also enjoy:

Famous rugby league rivalry of the 70s;

The greatest rock band Australia has produced (in my opinion, the best anyone has produced);

Long before Borat or the stooge reporters of The Daily Show, there was Norman Gunston;

You've heard of AC/DC, well these blokes were just as good. But scarier.

The boys who run the show can keep their uber technology and their digital leisure. Their consumption addictions and gotta-have-it products. Their computerized cars and junk food and personalized plates and plastic surgeries and irrational fears and obsessive-compulsive lives.

I'll just keep my memories.

Take care and be careful what you value,
Adrian Zupp

KNOWLEDGE AND EFFORT: THE WORLD'S TWO BEST FRIENDS -- PART 2

If you want to get a real handle on how the world works and how we all get manipulated, let's go hog wild and tap something once uttered by the worst of the worst: Adolf Hitler.

Hitler once said that the average man only wanted bread and circuses. (Hitler actually got the phrase from an Ancient Roman poem. But the fact that he used it adds emphasis.)

This is the ultimate elitist statement. What Hitler was saying was "Fill their bellies and give them amusing nonsense and they'll shut up and keep out of our way while we get down to the serious shit of holding power, exploiting them and doing as we please."

Okay, I'm not about to compare anyone to Hitler. What I will do is say that, in terms of manipulating people, many latter-day elites do use the bread-and-circuses strategy.

Think about it.

Political speeches, advertising, news reports, PR stunts, pressures to conform or be cool... they all have subsistence and/or entertainment at their core. Appeal to the masses sense of need for food and other "basics" such as trendy clothes (often in excess), then smother that with the cream of lowest-common-denominator entertainment to keep them occupied and out of the way.

Or as Bill Hicks put it in one of his skits: "Go back to bed America, your government is in control. Here, watch American Gladiators. Here's 56 channels of it. Sit on your couch and get fat and stupid. Your government is in control. And you are free to do as we tell you. You are free to do as we tell you." [paraphrase from memory] Watch the 35-second clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR3KwODDzeY

Hicks was never one to mince words but he got it right. I mean, look how dramatically television has changed over the decades. Ads have gone from someone holding up a box of soap powder and talking over a jingle in the 1950s and 1960s, to the most crazed Madison Avenue brainshit you can imagine. It's no secret that advertising today is developed by advertising vampires AND psychologists. What's up with that?

And that includes child psychologists because McDonald's, Coke, Phillip Morris (though they've been reeled in in recent years after hard work by activists!), and all the other squillionaire bottom feeders want to develop "consumers for life." Does this scare anybody else out there? Hey, they're messing with our kids!

And the average kid sees -- wait for it -- about 20,000 30-second commercials every year. (I'm pretty sure I've actually seen higher figures.) That's a lot of brainwashing and junk info being stuffed into our children's heads. Hours and hours of it. Type the words "number commercials children" into Google and be prepared to have your brain trickle out your ears.

This must surely have implications for cognition, memory, fatigue, attention span, personal world view, and more. Plus, the nature of the commercials nowadays -- e.g. a ton of ads for junk food -- are affecting other lifestyle choices. And physical health. (Googling this will probably give you heart failure. The health risks of reading my blog!)

Then we could talk about the shows on TV that dumb us down and rope us in with their reliance on excess and indulgence, simplistic non-messages, and their ability to titillate our voyeuristic urges. With some exceptions, major-rating TV shows these days appeal to our worst instincts. We want to see how so-and-so will backstab her roommate on Reality Show X or who's doing who when we tune into the latest Hollywood tabloid show etc etc. Nudity, violence, vicious gossip, wallowing in the trivial and inane... the list goes on. Gone are the days when you didn't even hear a minor cuss word before 10pm on TV. This is all blazing from the screen while the kids are still up.

I covered a lot of this stuff on TV in my previous blog entry "THE IDIOT CULTURE." Take a look at it.

But it's bread and circuses all the way. And it's messing up our thinking, stealing our time, dimming our creativity, dulling our objectivity and ability to critique, making it tougher to parent, and much more.

I don't even have TV. (I own a television but it isn't plugged into the outlet that pumps in the TV stations.) I haven't had TV for five years. And I don't miss it one bit. I enjoy quality movies on DVD and docos on DVD. That's about it apart from some occasional viewing at my fiancee's place.

But lest I be accused of sounding "holier than thou" let me add a rider: We all have our guilty pleasures. Yep, me too. Fine. The trick, I believe, is in whether the guilty pleasure is in control of us or if we are in control of the guilty pleasure. If you don't watch more than a "bit" of junk TV, hey, cool. And if you are aware of what it is that you're looking at, hey, double cool.

But if you find yourself immersed in this stuff to any degree, I'd encourage you to stop yourself and think about it. Believe me, I know what it's like: I used to veg out and watch one episode of "Cops" after another. Not good. (I was indeed a bad boy, bad boy... Actually, I think I was waiting for the episode where the handcuffed black man in the back of the patrol car would shout out: "Hey man, how come this car smells like crack smoke?!")

If you can say, "Hey, I don't care if I miss that show I like tonight because I want to read a book/play with my kid/CONVERSE with my kid/go out/exercise/etc." then that's a good sign. But if you feel an uncontrollable twitch coming on, call me immediately.

I hope this is making sense because I believe it with all my heart and it is important. Vitally important.

I first studied mass communication in 1987. There was one professor who tried to teach us about manipulative subtexts in various film forms (including TV) and I thought he was some kind of commie nut job (yep, I was very sucked in in those days). Now I know he was right. Since then I've read the literature, studied the trends, listened to child psychologists ON FILM admit to what they're doing, noticed how TV shows and commercials are actually constructed differently than in bygone decades so as to keep snapping your attention to FULL ON, and so on. I know more about this stuff than I really want to; but I felt I needed to.

My own son is limited in his "screen time." Very limited but not unreasonably limited. He is almost 8. "Screen time" is TV, computer, and video games. And, to her credit, his mother also carefully polices the content of what he looks at and plays.

And he's happy because the limits feel natural to him. And he also rides his bike, draws, studies hip hop dancing, belongs to a children's theater group, visits museums, loves reptiles and marine life, plays with friends, and amazes his Dad with things and words he knows. I have never known him to be bored. He exercises (various functions of) his brain, his body and his emotional intelligence.

Basically, he's enjoying a similar, balanced lifestyle to the one that was commonplace for my generation. These days, sadly, it takes work and monitoring to get it.

Now let me back up again: I'm not trying to say my kid is better than anyone else's. Kids are vessels of potential and I don't regard any one as better than another: be it my son or anybody else. But he is an example that I can cite accurately because, obviously, I know him intimately. And he is being kept from the "bread and circuses" syndrome. Is he perfect? No. Will he have problems? Yes. Will he go through phases? Yes. But he is getting a full set of tools to deal with life and the curveballs it will undoubtedly throw at him. (Before you envy me too much think about this: I'm a bloke who has always struggled to fill the big shoes of my Dad, and now I find myself humbled by my own son. Oh dear.)

This whole "KNOWLEDGE AND EFFORT" blog entry feels like tough love as I write it. But I do not mean it as arrogance or superiority. It comes from my conscience. I have loved kids all my life. I care about them. All kids. And I care about you, their parents, too.

Trust me, it takes real love and caring to tell you the crap you maybe don't want to hear. Of course, if you feel you are on a pretty good track already, then I'm going to tell you that it's up to you to help spread the word. The Idiot Culture must not steal our focus. The bread and circuses are not all there is. We are highly intelligent beings. Let's not allow that unique faculty to atrophy in a quasi (or actual) evolutionary way.

More tomorrow night.

Take care and keep smiling,
Adrian Zupp

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at KNOWLEDGE AND EFFORT: THE WORLD'S TWO BEST FRIEND'S -- PART 1 and PART 3.

A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE FABULOUS BILL HICKS!

I do not see myself as a doom-and-gloom merchant.

I consider myself to be a realist who cares.

And I'm not a pessimist. If I were, I would be telling you that there is no hope and we should all just give up. I am actually an optimist who recognizes that we live in dangerous times. And nothing is more dangerous than self-deception about that fact.

But I do believe in the essential good in the majority of people. I believe that right will win out if we apply ourselves, and the world will one day be a much kinder place. To me, that's optimism.

That said, I occasionally want this blog to be a little bit fun without ever trivializing the profoundly serious matters it addresses. That's tough to do. It's the kind of thing that takes a master satirist.

Enter Bill Hicks.

Bill Hicks was one of America's greatest comedic minds and satirists. An absolutely fearless stand-up comic who would give the finger to presidents and corporate hogs, explain why, and make you laugh all at once. He was very political, and extremely hilarious.

Sadly, Bill died of cancer in 1994, but his popularity continues to grow. Russell Crowe is said to be considering playing Hicks in a bio pic.

Hicks, who was unflinchingly outrageous and profane, cut through the BS like a razor sharp machete. He called himself a "dark poet." And yet, anyone who heard his monologue about love, peace and eternity knows that, for all his brooding and pain, he was the quintessential optimist.

And he reminded us, time and again, that even though our troubles sometimes pile up, that we shouldn't take things too seriously. Life, he explained, is "just a ride."

Please enjoy these quotes from Bill's performances and have a very happy and safe long weekend.

FAMOUS BILL HICKS QUOTES (Warning: Not for sensitive types!)

“Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.”

“I'll show you politics in America. Here it is, right here. 'I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs.' 'I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking.' 'Hey, wait a minute. There's one guy holding out both puppets!'”

“I get a kick out of being an outsider constantly. It allows me to be creative. I don't like anything in the mainstream and they don't like me.”

“I never got along with my dad. Kids used to come up to me and say, 'My dad can beat up your dad.' I'd say, 'Yeah? When?'”

“Supreme Court says pornography is anything without artistic merit that causes sexual thoughts. That's their definition, essentially. No artistic merit, causes sexual thoughts. Hmm. . . Sounds like . . . every commercial on television, doesn't it?”

“You know we armed Iraq. I wondered about that too. You know during the Persian Gulf War those intelligence reports would come out: 'Iraq: incredible weapons - incredible weapons.' 'How do you know that?' 'Uh, well...we looked at the receipts.'”

"Listen, the next revolution is gonna be a revolution of ideas."

"People in the United Kingdom and outside the United States share my bemusement with the United States that America doesn't share with itself."

"You know all that money we spend on the military every year - trillions of dollars? Instead, if we use this money to feed and clothe the poor of this world, which it would do many times over, then we can explore space, inner and outer, together, as one race."

"Go back to bed, America, your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed America, your government is in control again. Here, here's American Gladiators, watch this, shut up. Go back to bed America, here is American Gladiators, here is 56 channels of it, watch these pituitary retards bang their f***ing skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom. Here you go America. You are free to do as we tell you! You are free to do as we tell you!"

"I can't watch TV longer than five minutes without praying for nuclear holocaust. Really. On my hands and knees, wishing it upon every one of you. That's how much I love TV. Think it's great. I watched The Love Connection. That's gotta be the most depressing show I've ever seen in my life. Adult human beings on national television, groveling for dates. Have some self-respect: stay home and j**k off, man. Guys, buy a Hustler, toss off a load, go about your f***ing day, all right? Have some dignity."

"A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. Do you think when Jesus comes back he ever wants to see a f***in' cross? It's kind of like going up to Jackie Onassis with a rifle pendant on."

"Think of me as Chomsky with dick jokes."

“It's just a ride and we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money, a choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one.”

“I left in love, in laughter, and in truth. And wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.”


Take care,
Adrian Zupp

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might also like to take a look at THE FIRST AMENDMENT BELONGS TO YOU.

LET'S TALK ABOUT STRESS, BAY-BEE

I didn't go to work today.

I didn't go to work because I am so stressed out by the place and the continuing soap opera that plays out there that I just ran the white flag up the pole. The details pertaining to my particular situation aren't all that relevant. At the end of the day, I'm just one more person in the pandemic of work-related stress.

I don't consider myself to be a weak person. I started out in blue collar jobs at a relatively young age and got my hands dirty for many years before seeing the inside of a college. I know the value of a dollar and the meaning of hard work. I pride myself on my resilience.

But have you noticed how the working life has gotten harder and harder, as a general trend, over the past years and decades?

Why is that?

I think there are many interwoven reasons and one overarching one: The beast that is corporate-driven capitalism. I will lay my cards on the table and say up front that I am not a fan of capitalism. But even if I were -- or if you are -- anyone who has studied any economics at all knows that we do not have pure capitalism anywhere on the planet.

Is our capitalism driven by fair and open competition? No way. In the United States, the corporations with the most lobbyists in Washington DC win at will. Just think of it as another form of insider trading.

And all this guff about welfare to the poor being a waste of taxes and harmful to the economy and blah blah blah. Guess who are, BY FAR, the greatest recipients of taxes-funded welfare in the United States. Yep, corporations. The recent bailout of banks and various other crooks was only one of the more transparent examples of this. It's been going on a long time and the guys at the top know how to take care of each other. So if you're wondering where your hard-earned tax dollars go, better to look up than down.

The point about capitalism goes on and on but I promised myself I'd keep these blogs somewhat bite sized. So we'll come back to that another time.

So, "stress." If you work in the private sector, capitalism and the corporate culture have a lot to say about your stress level. (And even if you aren't in the private sector, you're still going to be heavily impacted.) This culture will determine your pay level, how much time you get off, your sick days, what you do for eight or 10 or more hours for five or more days per week. It will impact your self image, your self esteem, your family, your friends, your sleep, your entire private life. That's pretty significant, right?

No wonder we're stressed to hell. And hey, most of you reading this aren't living in the Third World: a chorus of countries that gets kicked in the groin by capitalism whether they like it or not.

If we are to feel fulfilled and happier and healthier, this all has to change. Simple logic. We need to talk to colleagues about how we feel (you'll find most of them feel the same way). We need to voice our complaints where and when we can: factoring in the risk of being fired, of course. We need to join unions if they are available to us. We need to read and educate ourselves on work, on our economy, on stress, on the institutions that dictate the shape of our lives (corporations, the body politic, the public relations industry and the media). We need to voice our concerns to these institutions and join public action/social change groups (even if only via the Internet). We need to take every opportunity we can to reach out and reach up.

This is not impossible stuff. Big things are changed by many voices and united actions. And if you share any of the concerns here you are NOT in a minority. You are the majority! It's just that the fat cats own most of the media so you aren't going to get any smoke signals about your partners-in-change from them. They like things just the way they are. And keeping the masses divided is the age old way to subdue them.

I have to end this here and promise to keep circling back to, and elaborating on, the various issues I've raised.

For now, here are three resources (of the many available) that might help you get started on joining the fight for a better world and feeling more optimistic:

1/ www.democracynow.org -- if you want the real news, you will get it here.

2/ "The Overworked American" by Juliet B. Shor -- a landmark book on, well, how we're overworked in the U.S.

3/ www.care2.com -- you can sign up here to get email bulletins about online petitions on important issues. So for 60 seconds of your time each day, you could add your voice to thousands of others on a critical issue and, yes, politicians do pay attention to these things. They love lobbyists but they also have to heed their constituents. Don't give up this power!

4/ Just about any book by (or DVD featuring) Noam Chomsky (pictured). Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest minds on the planet, his books are quite easy to read and devastatingly revealing. And many of them are quite short and in Q&A interview form.

I'll share more such sources with you in coming weeks. Perhaps you'd like to share some too by writing a comment with your thoughts on how to fight the good fight.

To end on a light note, the great radical comedian Bill Hicks once said: "Bosses. They're like gnats on a fishing trip." Doesn't go to the heart of the whole problem, perhaps, but it's a fun thought to roll around in your head on those days when work is getting you down and levering your stress up. (More on Hicks another time.)

Thanks for reading and I will try to pick up the thread started in my first post when I return here tomorrow.

Take care and onward!
Adrian Zupp